As many of you may know, I have been flying radio control (RC) airplanes since the mid-90’s. My friend, Craig, got me into the hobby as he also got started flying. After a while, I saved up and bought my first plane, and was able to go to the local RC air strip to fly with a number of others around the area, of all ages! Even though it has been decades, there are still a lot of people in the area who are active with RC hobbies. This includes Drones, Helicopters, Cars, Trucks, Boats, Airplanes, and more!
I’ve been working to revive our RC hobby club for the last couple of years. We are being hosted by the Marshall RC Park in Thorp. It is south of Highway 29 at N14347 Fisher Avenue. It’s a 14 acre site with an asphalt oval for cars and trucks, a 600 foot grass runway, and a lot of space for off-road vehicles, drones, helicopters... It even has a pond for boats and sea planes!
The Thorp Area R/C Club is meeting currently on Tuesday nights starting at 6:30, or earlier if we can make it. As fall approaches and the sun sets earlier, we will be moving to a weekend afternoon to get more daylight. At the end of last year, we had about 2 dozen people showing interest in all r/c hobby areas. This year, we’ve seen some more interest and more people showing up! Flying lessons are available with an instructor, who provides the training airplane and equipment to help teach people of all ages. The folks showing up bring a lot of knowledge to the table, to help new people learn the ropes!
A pleasant surprise has been the ready availability of items for the hobby. There has never been a better or more affordable time to become involved! AND there are folks in the club who are sniffing out good quality used deals on all sorts of items! One of our members was showing off finds of drones, off-road trucks, radios, and a bunch of other things he found at an auction for cheap! And he’s already asking the club who might need things at a savings! There are people with extensive knowledge of how to build and maintain the vehicles, too! But we can always use MORE!
It is going into fall, and a lot of people have different ideas of what fall and winter mean for hobbyists. With a large enough club, there’s the potential to rent a facility for indoor use through the winter. There are also a number of things that can be done in the snow! Flying, off-roading, air boats on the snow, and more! Winter is also a great time to build something new or do retrofit or overhaul what you already have. So we need builders, modelers, and other people with those skill sets to help the club thrive!
We are looking to expand the club in all areas of use! We love having visitors! If you want to start learning more come on out and see us on Club Night! If you want to start to see what’s going on, follow us on Facebook! The Facebook page is under Thorp Area RC Club. You can also e-mail questions to thorparearcclub@gmail.com! Or you can always stop and see me at the furniture store during normal work hours, and we can catch up when I’m free!